Washed Out
by ChibiFrubaGirl
Summary: RikuKairi, for i AM the Random Idiot You're all out of wishes? Well here... Borrow some of mine. What do you want to be remembered for? Not for the ordinary, but something more


**Pre-Author's Note:** I'm sooo happy to finally be getting this started. Soooo insanely happy… -sighs- But, give it a few weeks and the "new story buzz" will wear off… Then I'll just be miserable. And stressed. Two multi-chapters at once? I do not cope well… Argh.

But it really is about time I get this out. I mean, I first thought of this idea like a year ago. During the ski trip we took. I was on the bus talking to CraziiJaney about ideas for fics. That's when it came to me.

So yeah, this is dedicated to **i AM the Random Idiot**. Why? Because of all the lovely reviews for my het and angst fics. Because of all the laughs and inside jokes I formed with my friends over _The Party from Hell_. Because of that fact that she's one of those fanfic writers who is an honestly **good** writer. AND because this is my first Kairiku multi-chapter and as far as I'm concerned this pairing is her baby.

So this one's for you, iAtRA!

**Disclaimer:** RAWRGH!!

-

"No messages… Hmph."

The statement was followed by an agitated sigh and the sound of a cell phone being snapped shut. Violet eyes blinked at the surrounding area as said phone was shoved back into its owner's purse. Once this had been accomplished, the speaker folded her arms, chewing at her lip as she glared at the sky.

Kairi Harada had never been known for her patience.

"Just great," she muttered, seemingly to herself, "those ditchers."

In celebration of summer coming to an end she and her friends had planned for a picnic at the beach. They were all going to bring food; Selphie had been planning to bring her giant inflatable ball… Not to mention it was Kairi's last chance to wear her bathing suit before it became too cold.

And now, here she was… Standing on the beach; her bathing suit on under her sun dress, and a picnic basket resting by her feet. And where were her friends? Why, nowhere to be seen of course.

They were currently twenty two minutes and seventeen seconds late and counting. Much to a certain redhead's annoyance.

The girl ran a hand through her hair, and then brought both her hands down to smooth out the nonexistent wrinkles in her plain white dress. Kairi then proceeded to scan her surroundings while tapping her foot in impatience. The beach was completely vacated; with the exception of herself of cour-

_Wait_. Waitasec!

Okay so it wasn't _completely_ deserted, she thought to herself with a roll of violet. But it might as well have been. The only other inhabitant other than Kairi was a teenage boy seated right on the edge of the water; he had seated himself right on the edge of the tide so that the waves came within inches of his shoes.

Kairi searched the rest of the beach for another option (_any_ other option). Because in all honesty Riku Ishida was… Well, he was _Riku Ishida_. In all honesty Kairi wasn't even sure if she'd ever even _heard _him talk.

He was never hanging out with friends, he didn't offer up any answers in class…

Heck, if he turned out to be mute she doubted she'd be surprised in the slightest.

Finally, after much internal debate on her part, Kairi resigned herself to the fact that, yes, she was bored enough to talk (well, at least _try_ to talk) to Riku Ishida. Giving herself a once over she set off, her tan sandals making light crunching noises as they hit the sand.

Riku didn't look up as she made her way over, but Kairi was sure he could hear her coming. The only sign of recognition he gave was the way his body seemed to tense when she plopped herself down beside him.

For a moment, no one said anything. Riku didn't seem to want to bring himself to acknowledge her and Kairi had no clue how to start talking to him. He was _Riku Ishida_ after all. Eventually the red head turned with a friendly smile on her face.

"Um, I'm not sure if you know me, I'm—

"Kairi, right."

She blinked. Alright then, so he could talk. And he clearly wasn't deaf either. At least she'd established that much. Grinning a little, she leaned forward some more, resting her weight on her left hand.

"Right, and you're Riku," she chirped, "so, now that we're introduced… Let's talk." He slowly turned his head to stare at her, "Oh c'mon, don't look at me like that. I just wanna talk."

He sighed and turned away from her, "Whatever."

Kairi's brow furrowed, "Sooo," she said, drawing out the O, "what are you doing here?"

"Nothing."

"Uh-huh, well… How'd you get here? Get a ride from your parents?"

"Walked."

She straightened up a little, "You live that close to the beach?!" When he refused to answer she humphed and rested her chin on her hand moodily, "Lucky."

For a split second she could've sworn she'd seen the tiniest quirk of his lip; just a small upward jerking movement. But then it was gone, leaving her wondering if she'd imagined it altogether.

"I live closer to the high school," she commented. Their "conversation" (if you could call it that) went on like this for awhile. Kairi trying desperately to engage Riku in dialogue. The red headed girl spat out any topic that came to mind; _anything_ to pique Riku's interest.

Finally, after Riku had expressed no curiosity in Kairi's world famous cheese spread, Kairi huffed and folded her arms in tightly. She shot a sideways glare at the boy beside her before angrily turning her attention to the open sea before them. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized her friends _still _hadn't shown up, and this only further fueled her anger.

Life was _so _not fair.

-

Riku risked a glance at the girl sitting next to him; her current temperament matched the color of her hair exceedingly well. Thinking about it then, he really had no idea why she'd come up to talk to him in the first place. They'd never talked before in school…

Well, that wasn't such a huge deal. Considering Riku _never_ talked to anyone in school. Nope, he was just there to get through. Making friends? Who cared? Not him. That was certain. It wasn't like he was one of those "emo" (or whatever they called themselves) kids that brooded and wore all black. No he just… Didn't particularly like really bright colors. As for brooding? Please. So he wasn't one for dialogue, so what?

Riku did not _brood_. No, no, he just didn't feel like participating or interacting with people.

It was much like how Kairi wasn't one of those stereotypical "popular girls". Sure she had friends, but that was it. Sure most people knew her name, but that was it. She wasn't the stuck-up high school royalty. That kind of stuff was just in movies.

Casting another wary glance at Kairi, Riku frowned. Tilting his head back to look in the direction she'd come from, he noted the carefully packed picnic basket she'd left by one of the palm trees, along with another hand bag that carried some of her more personal items. Riku turned back to Kairi, taking in her irate features.

Had her friends ditched her or something?

He cleared his throat, startling the girl out of her no doubt murderous thoughts.

"So…" he began awkwardly, "what are _you_ doing here?"

For a minute the girl seemed genuinely startled that Riku was actually speaking to her. Finally she realized she was expected to answer.

"Oh! Um," she fiddled with the hem of her dress, "well actually… I was waiting for some friends to show up. But I guess they're busy…"

"Ah, I figured that much," Riku nodded knowingly. Making a split decision, he stood up and brushed the sand from his pants, "that's too bad."

"Mm…" Kairi agreed softly, it really was too bad, too, she thought to herself. This was supposed to be a big day for her group of friends; they were gonna make sure summer went out with a bang. Before the school depression could kick in.

Just as she was preparing herself to take another dunk in the pool of misery, a hand appeared right in front of her face. She blinked, her eyes following hand to arm to shoulder to neck to… Riku. She blinked again.

"What?" she asked dumbly.

Riku let out an irritated growl, "C'mon."

"Uh, o-kay…" She grabbed his hand (which was surprisingly smooth) and allowed him to pull her to her feet like she weighed nothing. Riku allowed her to regain her balance for a second before proceeding to tug her along with him, stooping by the edge of the beach to pick up her basket and bag.

"Um, where are we going?" she peered up at him.

Riku didn't answer, but merely continued to walk and tug her along. They were headed down the beach, walking right along the shoreline. Finally, after Kairi had begun to think Riku was ignoring her question, he spoke.

"It was boring just sitting there."

Kairi blinked.

_Riku?_

_Bored?_

…Really? Was that even possible? After all, in school he was always just sitting and not talking. How was this boring compared to that? At least on the beach he had a good view. But then, putting together the fact that Riku had begun walking as soon as he'd found out her situation and the way he was still pulling her along, she realized he'd meant that just sitting there had been boring for _her._ Not him.

_Well, that was sweet of him,_ she thought, feeling a small smile creeping onto her face. The redhead picked up her pace in order to keep up with the fast march tempo Riku seemed to be walking to. He turned his head back to look at her and raised his eyebrows a bit when he noticed her expression. In response, she just smiled wider and shook her head.

"Got any place in particular that you'd like to go?" she asked, trying her best to let him know she knew what he was doing for him. Without actually bring it up and embarrassing him.

He shrugged and kept walking, adjusting his grip on the picnic basket as he did so.

The minutes stretched and passed by slowly, and when Kairi turned around she realized she could no longer see the parking lot she'd come from. She chanced a glance at Riku (by now they'd released each other's hands) and bit her lip.

_He does know where he's going right?  
_"Almost there."

She jumped; it had been ages since either one of them had spoken aloud. When she turned to look at him she found the silver-haired teen was still walking as if he hadn't even spoken to begin with.

Shrugging inwardly, she just trotted to catch up with him. And although she hadn't cared all that much before, suddenly she found herself wanting to know where they were going…

-

He honestly didn't know why the _hell_ he was doing this. She was just that girl at school he'd never talked to before. That was all. Why the hell was he going out of his way to…? Whatever.

Riku ignored the feeling of Kairi watching him curiously. She'd see where they were going soon enough anyways. Eventually he stopped walking so suddenly she ended up bumping into him. Well, he had to allow himself a smirk at that.

Kairi, rubbing her nose irritably, came to stand beside him. She looked around the promontory they were standing on with a decidedly bored expression.

"And what're we supposed to be looking at again?" she asked, with all the impatience of a five-year old. Riku said nothing. Instead he merely pointed.

Kairi rolled her eyes at his melodrama, following the line from his finger to…

She gasped.

Birds.

Or rather, a whooooole lot of birds; as her little sister would say.

They ranged from pelicans to seagulls to other water birds Kairi had never laid eyes on before. She peered curiously at a few of the birds that were sporting blue webbed feet. Riku followed her line of sight and smirked.

"They're called boobies," he said.

"What?" she snapped her attention back to him, and promptly burst out laughing, "I can't believe you just said that."

"What?" he snapped, "That's what they're called."

"Really?" she blinked and returned her gaze to the birds, "You're kidding…"

He just raised his eyebrows at her, "Do you honestly think I'm capable of kidding?"

She snorted, bringing up a hand to cover her mouth, "I guess I'll take your word for it then."

Riku smirked and bent down, opening the flaps on the picnic basket.

"What are you doing?" asked Kairi. In response, Riku pulled out one of the large sub sandwiches the red head had packed earlier that day. Removing the contents of the sandwich, he passed her the bottom half of the bread, keeping the top part for himself. He nodded his head towards the bread in her hands and promptly ripped off a chunk of his own.

Kairi watched, her smile growing, as Riku slowly brought his arm back and let the small bit of bread fly. It sailed through the air for about five seconds before landing in the water with a soft _plop!_

Catching on, Kairi began shredding her own bread into handfuls of crumbs; which she began sprinkling over the heads of the many birds gathered below them. Most of the birds looked up; baffled by the sudden change in weather. But when they realized it was food (glorious, glorious food!) raining down on them an all out frenzy occurred.

Kairi giggled, watching two of the boobies dive for the same shred of bread Riku had hurled into the water. The two birds smacked heads before backing up to squawk loudly at each other. Beside her, Riku merely smiled before throwing another chunk of bread into the ocean.

Turning her head from the birds for a moment, Kairi offered Riku a smile.

"Riku, thanks for this."

-

When Kairi returned to her home that day, she was greeted by the sound of the phone ringing. She rolled her eyes, "Perfect timing."

Picking up the phone, she cleared her throat before speaking.

"Hello?"

"Kairi? Omigosh, I'm so sorry we didn't show up! But y'know Sora and Tidus right?—

"Yes, Selphie, believe it or not I am aware of the names of two of my best friends," Kairi sighed.

"Right so apparently they had like this family reunion thing today and they couldn't get out of it. Plus Lulu called Wakka like _**way**_ last minute and started complaining about how he hasn't had time for her lately between sports and school and like… Whatever. So then _I_ was heading to the beach to let you know where everyone else was but I was passing the mall y'know? And oh my God, they had a _sale_, Kairi. A _sale_. A beautiful, wondrous sale."

"All right, all right," said Kairi, unable to restrain her laughter, "I get it. It's okay, Selph. Really, I don't mind. I had fun anyway."

"You did? Really? All by yourself?"

"Well," Kairi smiled, "maybe not all by myself…"

-

Riku sighed, kicking off his shoes and toeing off his socks, as he entered the confines of his home. Well, that had certainly not been his usual trip to the beach. Looking back on it, he kinda wished he hadn't shown Kairi his favorite spot. After all, that was where he went to be alone.

Obviously since the beach had been vacated today he hadn't bothered going there, but _still_. What if she started bringing her friends there all the time? The experience had clearly been fun for her.

"Stupid," he muttered, knocking a fist to his head light.

He supposed it didn't really matter all that much, school would be starting soon. She and her friends probably wouldn't have time for the beach anyway. And by the time summer rolled around they'd forget about it. He nodded, reassuring himself of this.

And even if she did turn up once in a while, he added as an afterthought, maybe it wouldn't be _so _bad…

-

In many ways, summer is divided into three periods. There's the beginning, in which it takes students a while to get used to _not _being obligated to do stuff. Then there's the blissful stretch of time in the center where the summer laziness finally kicks in and teens fall into the routine days of "fun in the sun".

And then comes the dreaded finale, the decrescendo, as it were. The time when students begin to feel the horrendous pulling of the establishment, slowly but steadily dragging them back to the deepest depths of hell; no matter how hard you try to claw your way out.

Kairi Harada and Riku Ishida however were not accustomed to this feeling of soul-sucking misery.

Kairi spent the last few days of summer goofing off with friends and enjoying the time she had.

Riku? He didn't care either way.

-

"Aaah," Selphie groaned and threw her head back along with her arms, "I caaan't belieeeve we're baahaaack in schooool… Argh!"

Shaking her head at her friend's drama, Kairi easily replied, "Stop whining so much. There's nothing you can do about it, so just stop complaining, you little brat."

Selphie huffed and blew air out of her cheeks, nonetheless she grabbed a cookie off the desert rack as she and her redheaded friend made their way through the lunch line; making a distinct gagging noise when Kairi picked a salad.

"What?"

"Nothing it's just…" Selphie made an 'ick!' noise before continuing, "I don't know how you can eat that stuff…"

"What, you want me to be like you?" asked Kairi, raising her eyebrows, "Eating pizza everyday?"  
"That is so not true!" And here she paused to stamp her foot indignantly, "I get cookies too. And tea—

Kairi rolled her eyes, whether or not Selphie drank tea depended on whether or not you believed _Brisk! Lemon flavored_ counted as actual tea.

—And then there are those days when I get _Sun Chips_ and y'know those are_ full_ of multi-grains. Plus sometimes I get candy bars too!" Selphie folded her arms and gave her friend an imperious look, ever the conquering hero.

With another roll of violet, said companion said, sarcastically, "Right Selphie, because all that junk is _**soooo **_much better than pizza."

"Hey, that wasn't the point," she said, "the point _is _that I do eat more than just pizza. So anyways, c'mon, we need to find Sora and the others. I hope they picked out a good table… I really hated the one we had last year, right next to those sluts from our gym class…"

As Selphie continued to chatter on, Kairi surveyed the lunchroom. There were plenty of familiar faces, some pleasant some not, mixed in with the ones she didn't know or wasn't quite as acquainted with. And then, sitting on the edge of the lunchroom, was a face Kairi had only recently come to associate with friendship.

Shooting Selphie a look, she took her tray and changed directions.

"C'mon!"

Selphie, looking totally confused, jerked her head at Sora, Wakka and Tidus, signaling for them to follow. Exchanging looks, they all complied.

About halfway across the lunchroom, Selphie realized where exactly Kairi was headed. Grabbing her friends arm and attempting to pull her back a little, Selphie muttered, "Uh, Kairi? Uuuuummm… You do know where you're going right? Eh heh, Kai?"

"Yup, sure do," replied her friend easily, "Hey, Riku," she added as they came up on the aforementioned's table.

The silver haired teen neither looked up nor commented on the appearance of five people before him. Instead he took another bite from the apple he was eating and added another line to the paper he was working on.

Seemingly unperturbed by this less than warm greeting, Kairi set her tray down and sat herself beside Riku.

Her friends, after hesitating for an amount of time somewhere between a minute and a moment, followed her lead.

The air was filled with the sound of pencil tip on paper, followed every so often by the rubbing of an eraser or the violent etching out of a mistake.

_Scritch, scratch, scrat, scrat…_

There was an awkward silence. _Scrub, rub, dub, dub…_

There was a very awkward silence. _Scrit, scrat, screet, scrat… _

So awkward was this silence in fact, that other people in the cafeteria had been drawn in by the sheer awkwardness of the whole situation. _Scritch, scritch… _

"So Riku," Kairi cleared her throat, breaking through the awkward silence, "how was the rest of your summer?"

"Fine." _Scribble, stratch… _

Sora, Wakka, Tidus and Selphie all raised their eyebrows at this; a single thought ran through all their heads like a streaker.

_"Huh, so he can talk after all…"_

_Fub, rub, scrub, scrub…_

"Everyone," continued Kairi, boldly breaking the silence once again with a giant hammer known as 'Idle Chit Chat', "you guys all know Riku, right?"

This question was greeted with much mumbling as all four of Kairi's friends agreed. Finally, Tidus, just as fed up as Kairi with the lack talking, spoke up.

"Yeah, he had P.E. with me last year. Right Riku?" _Screetle, screet…_

Two more lines were added to the paper followed by a "Yeah."

"Oh yeah? What teacher did you two have?" Sora chimed in, clearly trying to get a real conversation started.

"We had that prick Mr. Highwind. God, I hated him. Wasn't he awful Riku?" Tidus turned to Riku expectantly. The silver haired teen's pencil continued moving across the paper, its eraser end waving in the air like it was at a concert having the time of its life.

"I guess…"

"But he always made us run so many laps! Everyday! And his _accent_!" protested Tidus, actually leaning in now.

To everyone's surprise Riku actually looked up at Tidus, "It wasn't so bad…"

"Hm," Tidus pursed his lips, "but didn't you hate it when Axel would purposefully start _walking_ just to get Mr. Highwind to make us start over? Axel was so weird…"

"Eh," Riku shrugged, beginning to pack his stuff back into his messenger bag, "Axel's a cool guy… And he wasn't walking on purpose."

Kairi looked up, "How do you know him?" she asked, ignoring Riku's last comment.

"We know each other." and a shrug were the only answers she got as Riku stood up and swung his bag over his shoulder before exiting the cafeteria.

The five kids watched him go.

Once he had exited the doors they all looked at eachother. Selphie looked over at Kairi, "So… That was weird."

Tidus made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, "He seems alright… I didn't realize he talked but…" He turned to Kairi, "Why exactly are we sitting with him now?"

"He's a nice guy, and no one else was sitting here," said Kairi, spearing some lettuce with her fork.

"Okay," said Sora, "but when did you become friends? I mean heck, I had no idea Riku talked to _anyone_."

"Yah," added Wakka, "I can't imagine anyone like him getting along with Axel."

"I ran into him on the beach that day you all ditched me," said Kairi, "he was very nice. I now officially consider him a friend."

"Well, he's kind of quiet," said Tidus thoughtfully, "but sure, why not? We're officially hanging with Riku Ishida."

"Cheers," said Selphie, raising her 'tea'.

"Ch- hey wait," Kairi bent down to scoop something off the floor, "Riku must of dropped this."

"What is it?" Sora peered over curiously but Kairi held the paper out of everyone's line of sight.

"Huh, looks like a song."

_A Collection of Thoughts and Memories Pt. 2: Escape From It All_

Take me away from here

All this madness here

Today

Take the fools that started this

All the mindless working slaves

Make 'em pay

Get me out of here

Out of this world of manifestos and expectations

Away from all the disappointments, letdowns and frustrations

Who are we to decide?

Who are we to play God?

When the time is ripe,

I will not gripe,

I promise I will run

Run and hide

Run and hide

(All of the pain)

Take me away!

(All of the power)

Give it away!

(All my prestige)

Throw it away!

I'm going away

I will not stay

I will not gripe,

I promise I will fight

Fight and die

Fight and die

Kairi's expression furrowed, "Wow… That's kind of… dark…"

"Riku writes dark, angsty songs? Wow," Sora rolled his eyes, "why aren't we all more surprised?"

"Hey now," admonished Kairi lightly, "this is actually pretty good… Hey Selphie, you can read music notes and stuff right? You look at it."

Selphie, taking the offered paper from Kairi's hand, skimmed over the song. The others waited for her to finish, all of them genuinely curious at this point. After a minute or two, Selphie looked up, expression impressed.

"Well, the lyrics aren't exactly to my liking but yeah… This is really good, I like the melody," she added beginning to hum it under her breath.

Tidus let out a breath, "Strange day," he muttered, "not only are we now friends with Riku Ishida; who apparently speaks, after all. But now we find out Mr. Quiet writes songs…"

"I kinda like it," said Kairi, smiling a bit when Selphie handed her the sheet music back, "I'll hang onto this for now and get it back to him later…"

And just like that, it had started. As Tidus had said their group was now officially friends with Riku. If anything it was an exciting idea to most of them, after all they all knew so little about the estranged guy.

In any case, thought Kairi as she tucked the song into her one of her binders, she was definetly looking forward to having a new addition to their group.

**Author's Note:** I-… I did it… Yay… -waves flag pathetically-

I don't think any apology I come up with will make up for how long it's taken me to write this (or anything lately for that matter). All I can say is my freshman year really took me off guard. High school is a million times tougher than I'd expected. Also, my current English teacher is so mind-bogglingly _stupid_ she's crippling my writing.

This is why I finished this pilot actually. I was really desperate to fight against her mind numbing grip on my writing.

Anyways, I hope you like iAtRI.

Like I've said, all the songs in here are written by friends of mine. The song featured in this chapter is written by a guy I shall refer to as Kris on the internet… Yeah, he seems like a Kris now that I think about it… Anyways, please leave comments on the songs too in your reviews.

I'm officially working harder to post stuff-

bliss


End file.
